Black Star Physical Therapy and Wellness

04/10/2026

I’m excited to share that Black Star Physical Therapy & Wellness will be on the road next week!

I’ll be in Canton, Ohio as a vendor for the Master Experience Step Event Saturday April 18 and Sunday April 19, 10 am-1pm.

If you’re at the event or in the area, make sure to stop by my booth and experience a fifteen-minute customized wellness session — choose your own experience with stretching, cupping, massage gun, or IASTM. Just twenty dollars.

This is my first time taking Black Star on the road, and I can’t wait to connect with you and show you what real recovery feels like. See you there!

Canton Civic Center 1101 Market Ave N. Canton Ohio

04/09/2026

Middle school is around the corner and I will be ready!

Real story.
Earlier today I was working out at my local community gym. Let’s just say I was the youngest person there at the time and all of the Nusteps were in full use.

Today is leg day so after finishing one of the machines, I forgot to lower the weight. A woman came afterwards, looked at me and said “did you just do this weight? What do you have to prove?”

my response: “I have boys and I’m the only girl in the house.”

She laughed and said “well, OK!”

Happy lifting ladies!

04/06/2026

Every spring it happens.
The weather breaks, motivation surges, and people go from winter mode straight into full outdoor activity.

First run. Full weekend in the garden. Daily walks that suddenly double in distance.

Two weeks later, they’re in the clinic or messaging me, joint pain is back!

It doesn’t have to be this way.
Don’t skip the transition.

The slides walk you through the same 3 things I assess with every patient before they return to outdoor activity.

Check them yourself at home before your first spring session.

If something feels off, that’s not a reason to stop, It’s a reason to prepare.

Want a personalized look at how you’re moving heading into spring?

Message me about a virtual movement assessment.

04/02/2026

“I’m telling you, the weather has something to do with my knee pain.”

I hear this all the time especially in spring with these weather changes and every time I smile.

Because they are right.

Cold temperatures thicken the fluid inside your joints.
Muscles and connective tissue tighten as a protective response.

When barometric pressure drops before a storm, joints with any history of injury or arthritis feel it directly.

But here is what most people miss.
Warmer weather does not automatically undo what winter did to your body.

Spring is not a reset button.

It is a starting line.

Start with the simple mobility routine in the slides. 5 minutes!
Do it tomorrow morning before anything else and let me know how you feel.

Does the weather affect your joint pain?
Drop a ✅ yes or ❌ no below.

03/31/2026

My next newsletter "Wake Your Joints Up for Spring in 5 Minutes" is coming Friday. Subscribe to get it and stay in the loop on everything I'm creating.

Hey there!!! My name is Natasha, and I am on online health and fitness coach providing health education and promotion through online exercise programing. I help women overcome chronic pain, avoid injury and establish healthy habits for longevity.

03/27/2026

She was working out consistently. Showing up every week. Doing everything right. But her joints were still achy. Recovery was still slow. Energy was still crashing. The missing piece wasn't more exercise.
It was protein. Most women over 40 are under-eating protein by half and have no idea. It affects your bones, your hormones, your sleep, and your ability to recover from every workout you are putting in.

I wrote about it in detail this week on Substack, including the simple formula to calculate exactly what your body needs and what a protein-forward day actually looks like in real life.

Link below. Go read it. Then come back and tell me if this sounds like you.

https://open.substack.com/pub/blackstarptwellness/p/the-protein-gap-why-most-women-over?r=208ejn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

03/26/2026

How many of you don’t know how much protein you need or how to even figure it out?

With so much information out there what does all of this mean?

I often find myself promoting protein, along with other foods to my patients especially those recovering from an injury or surgery because their bodies need more of this fuel to help heal.

Even if you aren’t injured, women’s bodies change each decade and for those of us over 40 who are still trying figure out what’s going on. May I suggest building strength by building muscle and feeding those efforts with adequate protein.

This does not mean that you need to only need to eat grilled chicken and tuna, but it does mean that you should include a quality amount at each meal.

Only having coffee and water in the morning?
Veggie salad for lunch and soup for dinner trying to keep your calories low and still wondering why you have weakness and pain squatting or climbing stairs.

Maybe you feel like your body isn’t changing even though you are working out?

Proteins are the building blocks for muscle so when you don’t eat enough, it’s harder for your body to recover after a workout or build the muscle you are actually trying to build!

Swipe to learn more and follow the equation in the slides. Let me know if you are getting enough.

Still confused? Send me a DM and let me help you out.

03/26/2026

New blog up now. 🎊

Women, have you heard about all the hype about protein and your body? 🏋🏽‍♀️

Do you know how much you really need and why? In this blog post I do a deep dive into how to calculate your daily protein needs, how the lack of protein affects the women’s body especially those over 40 and entering peri-menopause and simple food examples.

This is a great read and reminder for any woman at any age the importance of including protein along with your workouts.

Any questions? Just ask

https://open.substack.com/pub/blackstarptwellness/p/the-protein-gap-why-most-women-over?r=208ejn&utm_medium=ios

Most women over 40 are under-eating protein by half. And their bones, hormones, and joints are paying for it.

03/24/2026

Do you know how much protein you are supposed to have to maintain your muscle for women over 40?

Most women over 40 are under-eating protein by half. Their bones and hormones are paying for it. If you are noticing a change in your body, research supports eating 1.2-1.6g/Kg (body weight) per day spread evenly across meals. No more 1-2 meals a day.

Here’s where to start 👇🏽
1. Know your number.
Weight in lbs ÷ 2.2 = your kg weight
Multiply by 1.6 = your daily minimum protein goal. Don’t like math? Google “protein calculator” you are welcome!
2. Build every plate around protein.
Aim for a palm-sized portion 3–4x a day.
Think: chicken, fish, eggs, Greek yogurt, tofu, beans, lentils, quinoa.
3. Get support specific to your stage of life.
Perimenopause. Injury. Bone loss. Breastfeeding. These change your needs.

General advice only goes so far and
your body is not the problem.
It just needs the right fuel and that’s where the professionals step in.

Still confused about where to start? Send me a DM and let’s figure it out together.

03/23/2026

My next email newsletter "What's all the buzz about protein for women" is coming Friday.

Subscribe to get it and stay in the loop on everything I'm creating.

Hey there!!! My name is Natasha, and I am on online health and fitness coach providing health education and promotion through online exercise programing. I help women overcome chronic pain, avoid injury and establish healthy habits for longevity.

03/18/2026

At 17 I tore my ACL. It was the best thing that ever happened to my relationship with my body.

In my first year of kinesiology I started training in the gym. I needed something to replace sports so I chose the weight room over the aerobics room and I noticed something I couldn’t ignore.

When I was consistent with squats, lunges, deadlifts, my knee felt strong. Stable. Protected. At that time, I didn’t understand why.

That was 25 years ago.

Today at 47, I’m still squatting, still lunging, still deadlifting on that same knee.

Not despite the tear.

Because I learned early that strength is how you come back from anything.

If fear of injury or pain is stopping you from starting your strength training journey.

Don’t let it. It’s actually the prescription you need.

What’s an injury or limitation that actually taught you something about yourself? Let’s encourage each other below.